Now that i've had some coffee and given this some thought; it really makes alot of sense. Money is constatly created through various ways in game. If you kill an NPC and he drops X credits, there isnt a player who is suddenly X credits poorer, instead the economy adds X credits to its money supply. This will inevitably cause items on the GTN to go up in price as the supply of money becomes less scarce. But this raises a different question; is 6% enough? I would not doubt that money is created faster than it is destroyed, however raising the "tax" by too much will negatively effect the economy. What then, is the 'correct' inflation rate? This is a topic that has been debated by economists for years. Most would state that the ideal inflation rate should be around 1-6%, depending on who you ask, to keep prices stable. Since new players cause the money supply to grow faster (more players = more loot drops/mission rewards/etc), the rate of money destruction should be such that it offsets this new growth. I would love it if there were a way to see an overview of at least one servers economy. Specifically I'd be interested in seeing the rate of population growth compared to the rate of money supply growth, and maybe some history of GTN prices to see how the price of goods has been effected over time. The last bit may be asking too much but I'm sure bioware has a way to keep track of the overall money supply. Monetary policy is a tricky subject yet also very interesting, at least to people like me

yes but it's the part that actually matters, well, relative to the rest of the post I had a feeling I was using that wrong... haha

I have noticed theres alot of people from the west coast on jung ma (i think its in the server forum theres a thread about where are you from) but i have not noticed any problems with population. If you play on a weekend it can get pretty packed, especially with double xp

I should mention I have my degree in economics so this topic has really peaked my interest: Typically (in the simplest terms) a new 6% tax means the seller charges 3% more and his profits are decreased by 3%. In other words, he pays half the tax and passes on the other half to the buyer. Now, this can only happen if the market allows it. If another seller chooses to keep his price consistent, his profits will decrease by 6% but he will be more competitive because he will be able to charge a lower price than the previous seller who raised his price, thereby pricing the 1st seller out of the market. An economy tends to move towards the latter in a highly competive market in which there are many sellers, like there is in the GTN. (Just to round out the economic theory, incase anyone cares): In a market where there is few sellers, such as a monoply, the opposite will happen. Because the seller has more control over the price, they are more likely to raise the price by 6% so that their profits are unaffected. TL;DR: So if the seller, in an effort to keep prices as low as possible, assumes the entire tax, he still must make sure his profit margin is greater than the cost of the tax or else he will be operating at a loss. Therefore; if the seller previous to the tax is already seeing profit margins greater than the cost of the tax, he doesn't need to do anything. But if the profit margin previous to the tax is 6% or less, the seller will have no choice but to raise the price. In the case of the GTN where the tax is already in effect, the seller may not be actively making this decision because the market is making it for you. Without the tax, I think it is safe to say you would experience both lower prices and higher profits. I suppose that this would act as a deflationary pressure by removing currency from circulation, i'll need to think about the effects of that further... I know there has been at least one paper that;s been published recently on the economies of MMOs, I should try and dig one up...

yes but in this case who is the government? surely bioware is not worried about it's balance of in-game credits so are they simply trying to simulate a tax? I would really like to dive deeper into both what the intention of this tax is, and what the actual effect is.

That;s an interesting question. I'm not sure that it really discourages "powerselling" as much as it just inflates the price of everything by the amount of the tax. Much like how taxes work in the real world, no one party assumes 100% of the tax. A seller may 'eat' some of the tax but a portion of it will directly lead to higher prices thereby putting some of the weight of the tax onto the buyer. Having had very little interaction with the GTN i can speak only in theory but this is something I would like to examine closer.

That's because on the internet all girls are really guys and all little kids are really the FBI

it's not a terrible idea, i know other games have done this (mostly shooters that offer either third or first person) to prevent the advantage one may have from increased vision in 3rd person view. However, I think before this can be implementated the first person perspective needs to be updated, as the above poster said, so that you can see your weapon. What;s more, melee users may have a much harder time with first person than someone equipped with a blaster.

haha yeah i got sick of the music real quick... in fact I dont like music in most games. I have the music off and then i usually watch netflix or something on my other monitor while i'm playing

yeah this suggestion doesnt really make sense: 1.there is already shared faction planets 2.unless you want to RP an invasion it doesn't make much sense for a sith to be on a republic controlled planet.

preferences -> sound -> music Change that to 0, problem solved.

thanks for the replies! sounds like i'll have to take collecting comms more seriously, i never knew what they were for so id usually pick other rewards...

I logged out in what was apparently an unsafe zone because when I logged back in, I was already dead

I've only gotten into the game recently, maybe a few weeks ago, and i've been playing only 1 char so I managed to get him up to level 30. The problem I have, is keeping my gear 'up to date' if you will. I understand the best way is to have moddable gear and i've managed to collect a few pieces of them but what is the trick to keeping the mods current? I'm working on getting my artifce skill up to help but so far all ive managed to do is blow credits on crafting stuff i dont need in an effort to get my skill high enough to be useful. Should I be looking for vendors? checking the GTC? Perhaps I should mention that I've been trying not to stray too much from the main class story (I cant wait to see the end) only doing side missions when i need some XP. Is that part of the problem? Am I missing important item drops by not doing FPs or heroics?

When SWTOR went F2P ME (to my roommate): dude you should get SWTOR so we can play together, it just went f2p... HIM: i dont need to get sucked into another MMO, i already play WOW. ME: But this is like WOW with LIGHTSABERS. Lightsabers make everything better.